With a decade of experience, the Brooklyn-­based dance trio Tortured Soul has already made their mark on the world of dance music and has had tremendous success as an international touring act, appearing at major music festivals on virtually every continent with countless stops in Eastern and Western Europe, Central, Southeast and Eastern Asia, India, Australia, Southern Africa, South America and nearly every state and province in North America. And there’s plenty of reason to support such a phenomenon. After a live set, you could easily liken them to LCD Soundsystem, but without the punk.

After exploding to critical acclaim with 2006’s Introducing Tortured Soul and 2009’s Did You Miss Me, Tortured Soul, comprised of lead singer-­‐drummer primary composer John Christian Urich, jazz-­‐trained keyboardist Ethan White and newly recruited bassist Jordan Scannella, have dedicated themselves to rewriting the rulebooks of EDM with their own unofficial oath to the dance floor: Dance music is usually better when soulful musicians are behind the helm. No wonder the San Francisco Chronicle echoed such praises: “Imagine your favorite house DJ as a live band, making deep house music as danceable as a classic groove, and you’ll get a sense of what a Tortured Soul set is like.”

Now with two albums and a host of mix albums, not excluding 12-­‐inch DJ novelties, already behind them, Tortured Soul is working overtime on the highly-­‐anticipated follow-­‐up to their breakthrough disc, 2009’s Did You Miss Me. As the lead single to the forthcoming EP (scheduled for Spring 2013), “Dirty (Live)” returns the group to their unique sound of escapism, recreating the lounge funk that can be best summarized as Jamiroquai romance with a kick of Chic. It’s a slick Rhodes-­‐driven excursion loaded with sexy beats and some of their hardest come-­‐on lines to date: “I want you to be emancipated/Come to my hotel room right before the show,” Urich sings in a moment of utmost cockiness as he masks up as a 21st century sex ed professor. Call it Tortured Soul with a brushstroke of Prince’s Dirty Mind.

To celebrate the release of “Dirty,” an assortment of alternate mixes from some of today’s hottest mixologists in electronic/dance music will also hit the market. Tokyo native Makoto handles a mix that slides through various morphs before it thrives into a Chicago club workout. Brooklyn’s DJ Spinna whips out an electro house version pimped with hypnotic synth whirls. South Africa’s DJ Pepsi strips Urich’s vocals to its flesh and delicately surrounds it around futuristic vibes and tribal percussion. London’s very own Sir Piers cranks outs three mixes utilizing big ‘80’s synth blasts. The ‘Fools Re-­‐Funked Remix’, quite possibly his fiercest, turns “Dirty” into an inescapable Daft Punk-­‐meets-­‐The Time amalgam. Not to be ignored, the song’s original version displays a new world of hypnotic Eurodisco synth vibes, while also cleverly masking itself as atmospheric ambient music. Also available, Urich unveils his own remix, which smooth the beats into a spectacle of orgasmic disco jazz.

Regardless of which version you pick or like the most, the ambiance of “Dirty” is sure to light the pathway for what’s to come from Tortured Soul.